


Chasing a Legend Part 1: Path to the Ruins: Beginning

by moody_trans_detective



Series: Rogueass Galaxy [59]
Category: Rogue Galaxy
Genre: Drama, F/F, Ghost Possession, Ghosts, tragic backstory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-08
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-14 07:02:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,294
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29913195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moody_trans_detective/pseuds/moody_trans_detective
Summary: Lilika remembers an old love at the entrance to the ruins.
Relationships: Lilika Rhyza/Kisala (Rogue Galaxy), Lilika Rhyza/OC
Series: Rogueass Galaxy [59]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1956043





	Chasing a Legend Part 1: Path to the Ruins: Beginning

The old memories threatened to resurface, but Lilika set one foot before the other regardless. A warrior like herself wouldn’t turn back, even if this path to the ruins was a difficult one. She was older, stronger. She was ready.

But when they reached the beginning point, the old stone set generations ago overgrown with vines and encroaching jungle stretching out like some great maze, Lilika hesitated. She hadn’t been here since she’d been an adolescent. She’d never expected to return. And she definitely hadn’t anticipated it feeling so threatening and wrong. She’d been a little shorter then, much more naïve. She’d been in love.

“Lilika?” asked Kisala, touching her forearm with gentle fingers. “What is it?”

Beautiful Silira, just sixteen years old. No—Lilika blinked hard, blinked Silira away. The wind shifted, brought the damp smell from inside the ruinous path swirling toward them, and Lilika couldn’t keep herself from remembering any longer. Silira. These very stones.

She’d been fourteen when she’d first felt the swell of desire for Silira; fifteen when she’d acted on it. Lilika had trained with her for years, and suddenly had barely been able to keep herself from kissing her every time they were near each other. She’d been terrified Silira hadn’t felt the same kind of crush, but Lilika had grown desperate. So she’d asked to meet Silira here, the most distant place she could think of, where they wouldn’t be caught. Where no one would have to see Lilika’s shame and torment should Silira break her heart.

Gods and spirits, this place was unchanged, down to the dangerous feel, the wrongness. She and Silira had laughed and ignored it as adolescents did for such things. Now Lilika trusted such instincts she’d once brushed off. And if only she hadn’t brushed them off!

“This place…” she said, trailed off.

“Do you know it?” asked Kisala.

Lilika shook her head.

“I’ve never gone farther than here.”

She’d been too afraid. She’d pretended the place never even existed.

“So no guide?” asked Jupis, sounding annoyed and accusatory. They should have left him back on the ship, or on Zerard. Lilika hated the fact Dorgengoa had let him board to duck Zerardian police.

“We don’t need a guide,” said Jaster. “We’ll get through this place.”

Lilika didn’t look at him, or Kisala, or anyone. They didn’t know what lurked here…not just beasts, but spirits, the lingering ferociousness of death. But she was all too aware.

Silira had shown, had looked nervous and kissable. Lilika had blurted out her desires so she wouldn’t make up some other excuse and never say them. And then, while she’d been waiting, terrified, Silira had smiled. She’d taken Lilika’s hands. She’d kissed Lilika.

They’d made out there in the mossy, overgrown path ruins. They’d been sloppy, new at this. Silira had tasted like fire fruit and king bee honey, had smelled salty and floral. Her lips had been the most amazing, the softest—Lilika hadn’t been prepared for how wonderful kissing another girl was. She’d tried kissing a boy and hated it. But Silira…

It had been a natural progression. They’d fumbled through sex, finding where their bodies most liked one another, until darkness had fallen and the ominousness of the ancient path had grown too intense even for them. But they’d been back, every day or two, their secret meeting place where they’d come to share secrets and mouths and bodies.

Silira. Even after all this time, Lilika’s heart ached thinking of her. Of the abrupt loss. Another death her fault, another life ended before it should have been. She was suddenly aware of Kisala talking again.

“What _is_ it? Why are you touching your lips?”

Lilika pulled her hand away. She could almost taste Silira across the years. She didn’t know why it still hurt so much.

“I…have memories of this place.”

“Are they bad?” Kisala sounded so understanding.

“No.” Lilika paused. “Yes. I’m not sure.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Silira…” Lilika scowled to the side. “It’s nothing.”

“Who’s Silira?” Kisala sounded less understanding now, and when Lilika didn’t reply, she grew more so. “Were you seeing someone before you joined our crew?”

Lilika didn’t know what to say to that. The others were staring, watching. Zegram drank. Simon had stopped bouncing. Jaster examined the nearest moss-covered carved stone very intently.

Kisala grabbed her arm.

“Lilika, tell me! Is Silira back in Burkaqua Village, have we been…Have you been sleeping with me while thinking about someone else?” She put a hand to her mouth. “You said you’d marry me!”

“No, no.” Lilika didn’t understand where this was coming from. Hadn’t she made Kisala feel protected and adored? She didn’t understand why Kisala was so afraid of betrayal. “Silira…was someone I loved, true, but that was a long time ago.”

“But this place makes you think about her. If you loved her then…”

“I am going nowhere, Kisala.”

“Do you love me more?”

Lilika hesitated.

“Then how do I know you won’t go back to her?”

“Because she is dead,” said Lilika. She gestured to the path. “She went in there, years ago, and never returned.”

And voicing it aloud hurt. Lilika remembered showing up late to one of their meetings, remembered being surprised Silira wasn’t already there. She’d never come home. Lilika had told the rest of the village they’d been meeting to secretly practice archery outside of class, to dare each other to get near the ruins.

“Oh.” Kisala sounded relieved. She relaxed. “I am _so_ sorry. Oh, Lilika. This must be so hard for you.”

She leaned up to kiss Lilika, who reciprocated. But she was kissing a new woman on the same ground she’d spent so many blissful hours with Silira. Lilika made the kiss brief.

“I’m sorry,” mumbled Kisala. “I understand if you feel this is harmful to her memory…”

“It is less that and more I’m afraid she may return.” Lilika held a confused-looking Kisala at arms length. “These paths, the ruins ahead, are not dangerous merely because they’re filled with beasts. Spirits linger here, too, and they are not to be underestimated.”

“What? Spirits?”

“The spirits of long-dead Juraikan warriors roam these paths.” Lilika glanced away. “We are all certain one of them took Silira. A spirit possessed her, and took her into the ruins, and she is gone.”

And it was all because she should have known better than to keep meeting here. Lilika didn’t know why it hadn’t been her.

Kisala let out a little laugh.

“Spirits? No way.”

Lilika recoiled, hurt. Kisala’s open disbelief and rejection of this cut deep.

“Please, Lilika. I know it must have been terrible, but spirits don’t possess people and lead them into ruins to die.”

“Kisala,” began Jaster, not examining the rock any longer. He looked uncomfortable. Lilika suspected he’d witnessed a spirit before.

“You stay out of this!” Kisala turned back to Lilika. “I think your spiritual beliefs are wonderful, but not at the expense of holding you back.”

“These are not merely beliefs. There _are_ spirits here, Kisala.” Lilika was growing irritated with her. “I fear what will happen should we go into the overgrown path…”

“If we find her body, I’ll be right by your side.”

Kisala tried to take Lilika’s hand, but she pulled back. No, she didn’t think she could touch her right now. Not after all this. Like with Miri, Kisala was being cruel, condescending. Lilika had thought she’d moved beyond that, but apparently not. Lilika glared at her, brushed past her.

“We’ve wasted enough time here,” she said, pulling out her hatchet and leading the way. She was going to meet whatever was ahead of them. She had other thoughts to fixate on than loss: vengeance for Silira.


End file.
